Francis Atsu, Charles Agyei, William Phanuel Darbi and Sussana Adjei-Mensah
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-run impact of telecommunications revenue and telecommunications investment on economic growth of Ghana for the time horizon…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-run impact of telecommunications revenue and telecommunications investment on economic growth of Ghana for the time horizon 1976-2007.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the Augmented Dickey Fuller and Phillips Perron unit root test to explore the stationarity property of the variables and the Engle-Granger residual-based test of cointegration to model an appropriate restricted error correction model.
Findings
The outcome of the analysis produced mixed results. Telecommunications revenue does not contribute significantly whilst telecommunications investment does.
Practical implications
Policy makers will have to deal with a conundrum; while designing targeted policies that will attract more telecommunication investment in order to maximize the corresponding revenues and the economic growth it brings in its wake, they must at the same time find ways and resources to grow the economy to a point or threshold where revenue from telecommunications can have the much needed impact on their economies.
Originality/value
The study is one of the first that has investigated the line of causality between telecommunication revenue and economic growth unlike previous research that mainly focused on the impact of telecommunication infrastructure on economic development.
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Nurul Mozumder, Glauco De Vita, Charles Larkin and Khine S. Kyaw
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sensitivity of firm value to exchange rate (ER) movements, and the determinants of such exposure for 100 European blue chip…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sensitivity of firm value to exchange rate (ER) movements, and the determinants of such exposure for 100 European blue chip companies over 2001-2012.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt a disaggregated framework that distinguishes between Eurozone and non-Eurozone firms, and between financial and non-financial firms across the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods of the recent financial crisis.
Findings
The authors find no significant difference between Eurozone and non-Eurozone, and financial and non-financial firms. Exposure is found to be higher during the financial crisis, across all sub-samples of firms. In the majority of cases the exposure coefficient is significantly positive, indicating that European firms’ stock returns are positively (negatively) affected by depreciation (appreciation) of ERs (indirect quotation).
Practical implications
It is recommended that firms’ financial plans budget for higher liquidity levels in order to build up, during “good times”, a natural hedge for the higher exposure likely to be faced during periods characterized by greater financial distress.
Originality/value
The main novelty lies in the adoption of a disaggregated framework that discriminates between pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods in order to ascertain the extent to which the recent financial crisis affected the relationship in question.
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George Okello Candiya Bongomin, John C. Munene, Joseph Mpeera Ntayi and Charles Akol Malinga
The purpose of this paper is to test the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional research design was used in the study and quantitative data were collected from 304 SMMEs located in Gulu District using a semi-structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) through the use of analysis of moment structures was adopted to establish the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. Furthermore, Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to show the association between the variables under study.
Findings
The results revealed that there is a significant interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. Besides, the results indicated that business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and government support have significant and positive impacts on SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda.
Research limitations/implications
The study employed cross-sectional research design, thus, ignoring longitudinal study approach. Besides, the sample was selected from only Gulu District, therefore, leaving out other Districts located in Northern Uganda.
Practical implications
Advocates of recovery programs and interventions in developing countries should consider government support as a vital factor in promoting business skill, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, and entrepreneurial education in order to enhance SMMEs growth in post-war communities. In addition, governments in developing countries should offer investment incentives and tax waivers to infant SMMEs in post-war communities like in Northern Uganda.
Originality/value
The study examined the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in developing countries. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to test the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. The use of government support as a moderator in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival is scarce in entrepreneurship literature and theory. This creates uniqueness in this study.
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– The purpose of this paper is to investigate secondary school teachers’ perspectives on ICT usage in secondary schools in Ghana.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate secondary school teachers’ perspectives on ICT usage in secondary schools in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 376 teachers from 24 public and private schools from four regions in Ghana participated in this study. Survey and focus group interviews were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the findings.
Findings
The result indicated that teachers’ perceived ICT usage, perceived access to ICT, perceived ICT training and perceived ICT competence were low. Furthermore, the analysis showed that male teachers’ perceived confidence in the use of ICT was higher than female teachers. On the other hand, the perceived administrative support for female teachers was more than that for male teachers. Finally, this study discovered that there was no significant difference in public and private school teachers’ access to ICT, administrative support, self-efficacy, competencies and training.
Originality/value
This contributes to the literature on the perceptions and use of teachers’ ICT in secondary schools. The results provide insights into factors that teachers perceived as obstacles to integration of ICT into their teaching, particularly in developing nations. The study shows that teachers’ perceived ICT competencies and ICT training do not depend on the type of school the teacher is employed to teacher.
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Peterson K. Ozili and Erick R. Outa
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of bank earnings smoothing during mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in Nigeria, to determine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of bank earnings smoothing during mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in Nigeria, to determine whether mandatory IFRS adoption increased or decreased income smoothing among Nigerian banks.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ panel regression methodology to estimate the association between loan loss provisions (LLPs) and bank earnings.
Findings
The authorse find that the mandatory adoption of IFRS is associated with lower earnings smoothing among Nigerian banks, which implies that Nigerian banks do not use LLPs to smooth reported earnings during the mandatory IFRS adoption period. The authors find evidence for earnings smoothing via LLP during voluntary IFRS adoption. Earnings smoothing is not significantly associated with listed and non-listed Nigerian banks during voluntary and mandatory IFRS adoption. Overall, the findings indicate that mandatory IFRS adoption improves the informativeness and reliability of LLPs estimate by discouraging Nigerian banks from influencing LLPs for earnings smoothing purposes during the mandatory IFRS adoption. The findings of this paper are relevant to the debate on whether IFRS reporting improves the quality of financial reporting among firms in Nigeria.
Practical implications
Overall, the findings indicate that mandatory IFRS adoption improves the informativeness and reliability of LLPs estimate by discouraging Nigerian banks from influencing LLPs estimates to smooth earnings during the period of mandatory IFRS adoption.
Social implications
The implication of the study is that IFRS has higher accounting quality than local GAAP in Nigeria as it improves the quality and informativeness of accounting numbers (LLPs and earnings) reported by Nigerian banks during the period examined.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt to focus on income smoothing during mandatory IFRS adoption in Nigeria.
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Charles Baah, Ebenezer Afum, Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah, Essel Dacosta, Douglas Opoku-Agyeman and Collins Nyame
Using the institutional and natural resource-based view theories, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of religious, cultural and mimetic orientations on…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the institutional and natural resource-based view theories, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of religious, cultural and mimetic orientations on proactive environmental strategy, corporate environmental responsibility and traditional environmental strategy. Relying on data collected from managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the study further examines how proactive environmental strategy, corporate environmental responsibility and traditional environmental strategy drive relational capital and firm performance of SMEs operating in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a survey research design, a quantitative approach and a partial least square structural equation modelling technique in making data analysis and interpretations due to its appropriateness for predictive research models.
Findings
The results suggest that mimetic orientation robustly and significantly influence the dimensions of environmental orientation. While religious orientation only had a robust and significant influence on proactive environmental strategy, cultural orientation robustly and significantly influences both proactive and traditional environmental strategies. Despite the positive and significant interactions that exist between proactive environmental strategy, corporate environmental responsibility, traditional environmental strategy, relational capital and firm performance, the findings particularly revealed that proactive and environmental strategies insignificantly correlated with relational capital contrary to past study findings.
Originality/value
The study is among the few to examine how religious, cultural and mimetic orientations interrelate with proactive and traditional environmental orientations, relational capital and firm performance in an emerging economy. Based on the findings, implications and directions for future research are discussed while also providing guidance for policymakers, regulatory bodies, scholars and practitioners.
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Howard Thomas, Michelle Lee, Lynne Thomas and Alexander Wilson
This study aims to understand the relationship among the anthropomorphic features, perceived authenticity on customer engagement and electronic word of mouth using the integration…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the relationship among the anthropomorphic features, perceived authenticity on customer engagement and electronic word of mouth using the integration of realism and trust theory in the context of virtual influencers (VI). This research also investigates the moderation of brand familiarity on both focal aspects of trust (cognitive and affective), anthropomorphic cues and perceived authenticity.
Design/methodology/approach
A mall-intercept survey approach was used to collect the responses using a structured survey from 377 respondents from India. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The findings indicate that physical and cognitive anthropomorphic features and perceived authenticity influence cognitive trust. However, affective trust is only influenced by perceived authenticity. Apart from this, higher levels of trust in VI contribute towards higher customer engagement and lead to sharing electronic word of mouth. Finally, brand familiarity moderates the relationship between emotional cues and affective trust.
Practical implications
The popularity of VI is driving companies to redesign their marketing strategies. Due to the limitations of human influencers, companies are allocating budgets for VI-based marketing strategies. However, it is still unclear how consumers perceive VI as a brand endorser and what would be its implications. This study suggests that consumers are looking for anthropomorphic cues such as physical, cognitive and emotional cues of humanness in the VI, along with authentic content shared through them to instil their trust. Once the trust is built, consumers will be engaged and say positive things about VI.
Originality/value
This study fills the gap by examining how anthropomorphic features and perceived authenticity contributed to both dimensions of trust (cognitive and affective), further enhancing customer engagement and electronic word of mouth. This research also examined the moderation of brand familiarity on the relationship between trust and its antecedents.
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Ernest Kafui Kwasi Tsetse, Mahmoud Abdulai Mahmoud, Charles Blankson and Raphael Odoom
The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between stakeholder market orientation (StMO) and sustainability performance (SP) at tourism destinations (TDs).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between stakeholder market orientation (StMO) and sustainability performance (SP) at tourism destinations (TDs).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a quantitative survey, data was collected from 313 tourism business managers, who are the owners or managers of the tourism businesses at the TDs, and was analysed using the partial least square structural equation model.
Findings
Findings indicate that environmental performance is the highest sustainability management practice adhered to at the TDs. Also, community and visitor orientations predicted SP most, with all its hypotheses supported.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on the impact of StMO dimensions on SP within the TDs, thereby limiting generalisation to other sectors.
Practical implications
Tourism marketing managers are given the knowledge that StMO strategy is a precondition for effective implementation and adoption of SP strategy.
Social implications
The results have key social implications, in that a sustainability marketing strategy that will assist in the increase acceptance of sustainability programs within the tourism sector has been noted.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is believed to be the first empirical study to test the relationship between StMO dimensions and three SP dimensions. This study will improve the sustainability management of tourism resources in Ghana. It will further aid in meeting some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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Samuel Adusei, Dorcas Nuertey and Emmanuel Poku
This study investigated the relationship between last-mile distribution or delivery (LMD) and commodity access through the mediating role of commodity availability and commodity…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the relationship between last-mile distribution or delivery (LMD) and commodity access through the mediating role of commodity availability and commodity security and the moderating effect of supply chain integration (SCI).
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted the survey research design and employed the questionnaire instrument in collecting primary data from respondents in Eastern Regional Health Institutions in Ghana. The total number of valid responses received was 204. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was adopted to analyze the relationship between the study variables.
Findings
The findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between LMD and commodity availability as well as LMD and commodity security. Moreover, while the relationship between commodity availability and commodity access is positive and significant, that between commodity security and commodity access is positive but insignificant. Furthermore, there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between LMD and commodity access. The study discovered that the interaction between LMD and commodity access is insignificant and negatively affected by SCI.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous studies have empirically verified the effect of LMD on commodity access in the presence of mediating factors such as commodity availability and commodity security and SCI as the moderating factors.